The use of silicic compounds to terminated living polyanions has been disclosed in U.S. Pat Nos. 3,244,664, 3,692,874, and 4,185,042.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,244,664 discloses a process for preparing a polymeric product by reacting a vinylidene-containing monomer which contains at least one terminal alkali metal atom with a silicic compound.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,874 discloses the use of conjugated dienes as accelerators to improve the coupling of alkali metal-terminated polymers with silicic coupling compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,042 discloses coupling agents based on silicon compounds containing at least two alkoxy groups and an epoxide group.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,220 discloses epoxy-terminated oligomers prepared by reacting a 1,3-diolefin compound with a difunctional initiator to form an intermediate living oligomer having two ionic terminated groups. The intermediate living oligomer is reacted with a halohydrin compound to epoxidize the two anionic end groups and form an epoxy-terminated oligomer.
It has now been found that epoxy-terminated polymers can be prepared from hydrosilyl-terminated hydrogenated polydienes. Said process involves reacting a conjugated diolefin or monoalkenyl arene with an organoalkali metal compound to form a polydiene which is reacted with a silicic compound to form a hydrosilyl-terminated polydiene. The hydrosilyl-terminated polydiene is reacted with hydrogen gas to form a hydrosilyl-terminated hydrogenated polydiene which is reacted with an unsaturated epoxy compound.